


Gold, Glory, and Other Mistakes

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: "don't you have another fic to work on" you ask, "shhhhhh" is all I say, M/M, i feel like I could work on them both at one but we all know thats a lie so..., very slow updates all around i guess>
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-07 15:59:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10364214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A mismatched crew of pirates sails a stolen ship and attempts to fight Zarkon, king of the open sea. There's cats! Royalty! Stowaways! Romance! Sea monsters! Updates?





	1. Lance Gets Drunk and Pidge Makes Several Questionable Descisions

**Author's Note:**

> Heads up this is unedited, not proofread, and just in general a trainwreck (or shipwreck, amirite). No idea where it's going, no idea when I'll write more, but stay tuned?

    Lance had taken to bragging, as he always did around this time at night, emboldened by a few too many drinks and surrounded by people who couldn’t have cared less.

    “They call me the tailor,” he boasted, taking a swig of the ale that Pidge had been sneakily watering down for the past hour, “because of the way I thread the needle.”

    “You’re a sailor,” Pidge pointed out. While Lance had gotten progressively drunker, she had stuck to pouring her drinks out over the bar, and was paying the price for it by being forced to listen to her shipmate struggle to form complete sentences and hit on anything with a face. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

    “Your face doesn’t make sense.”

    Pidge rolled her eyes. “I think that’s our cue to head out. Let’s get going, _tailor_.” She stood up, smoothed out her rumpled shirt, and grabbed Lance by the collar of his jacket, ignoring his gargles of protest.

    “Come on, lover boy!” she called at Hunk, the last member of their pitiful crew, who was sitting in the opposite corner of the room with some girl Pidge had never seen. He stood up, waving goodbye to his new love interest apologetically before rushing out after them.

    “Why did we have to leave?” Hunk complained as the three of them exited the bar. “She was cute. We were hitting it off.”   
    Pidge gestured at Lance, who was swaying on his feet, pointed up at something in the sky. “Look at him.”

    Hunk shrugged and draped one of Lance’s arms over his shoulder. “Okay, let’s get him back to the ship.”

    Pidge didn’t bother to help out. Hunk was strong enough without her, and she was too short to be of much use anyways.

    The docks were several blocks away, and Pidge found herself stopping every few minutes when she realized that Hunk and Lance were falling behind.

    “You know, you could help me,” Hunk complained every time she told him he was taking to long, but she refused to let that happen. The second she resorted to carrying Lance’s drunken ass through town, she admitted they were friends, and he would never let it go.

    “Hey, is that fire?” she asked, noticing something bright on the horizon. They were almost at the docks, and unless Pidge’s eyes were playing tricks on her, it looked like one of the ships was burning.

    Hunk squinted in the direction she was pointing. “Yeah, I think so.”

    “You know what else is on fire?” Lance asked, a smile spreading across his lips.

    “You?” Pidge guessed.

    “ _Me_.”

    Pidge and Hunk rolled their eyes simultaneously.

    “Let’s go check it out,” Pidge said, rushing towards the fire. She left Hunk in her wake, yelling for her to wait up, but she didn’t stop. A year at sea had given Pidge nothing if not a love for trouble, and though she wasn’t about to light someone’s ship on fire herself, she definitely wanted to be near the action.

    The ship in question was barely a ship at all, about the size of the pathetic skiff Pidge and the crew had been left with after their old ship was attacked. They hadn’t had a chance to find a new one, but they were planning on taking one over soon. For now, they were stuck with the shitty boat, which was a lot like this one actually, down to the gray sails and weathered blue paint -- Pidge realized very suddenly that their ship was on fire.

“Oh no,” said Lance, his words slurring together. He and Hunk had appeared at some point while Pidge was looking on in horror. “That’s not good.”

“No,” Pidge echoed. “It’s not.”

They ended up staying at a tiny inn a few blocks away from the docks. It wasn’t a remotely wholesome place (Pidge immediately deemed it their “den of iniquity”), but none of them were willing to empty their wallets over a room, and if anyone tried to kill them, they were fairly sure they could fight the attackers off. They got one room, which contained exactly one not exactly pristine looking bed and nothing else, and Hunk promptly dropped Lance on it and left him to sleep off the alcohol while he and Pidge talked.

“So,” Hunk asked, “what do we do next?” He was standing in the middle of the room, being extremely careful not to touch anything. For a filthy pirate, Hunk seemed to have awfully high standards.

Pidge, who had stopped caring around the second time she’d gotten blood on her shoes, was sitting on the floor, head in her hands. She had to admit, she was worried. Their crew had been fractured, they didn’t have a captain, and now their pathetic excuse for a ship was gone. She was worried, she had to admit, but she couldn’t let Hunk see it, so instead she looked up at him, a knife sharp smile cutting across her face.

“We get ourselves a new ship, of course.”

“How are we going to--”

“Hunk, we’re pirates,” Pidge reminded him. Hunk and Lance had been privateers, once upon a time, loyal and just and all that nonsense, until a bit of shady business and a run in with the crown sent them to jail. Now, they were actual, genuine pirates, in all their horrible gold stealing glory, and it seemed like a much better deal than serving an empire to Pidge. The two of them knew everything there was to know about the ships whose captains had managed to keep their morals intact, and with Pidge’s extensive knowledge of every pirate sailing the open seas, they had managed to keep themselves alive for that long, even though there were only three of them left and their ship was a goddamn dingy. The only problem with their old status was that Hunk kept forgetting that he was, in fact, no longer a law following sheep, and instead a ruthless cutthroat force of mass destruction.

“Oh,” he nodded. “Oh. Right.”

“Get some sleep,” Pidge told him, standing up.

“Where are you going?” he asked, moving to follow her.

“Out. And I’m going _alone_.” Pidge didn’t give him time to argue. She left the room without another word.

The thing was, while Pidge was, indeed, planning on getting herself another ship, she wasn’t about to do it with those two. She had only joined their crew in the first place because of their captain. Takashi Shirogane, legendary pirate and master of the seas, had gladly accepted Pidge onto his ship, and she had been eager to work with him. But now Shiro was gone and she had been waiting for a chance to ditch the boys and never look back. This was her chance.

“Pidge.”

Pidge jumped, spinning around to find herself face to face with Lance, awake and in front of her and still slightly swaying, though he seemed to have regained the ability to speak without sounding like a two year old.

Lance’s drunkenness had a scale, and somewhere in between one-drink-Lance and about-to-fall-asleep-in-the-middle-of-the-street-Lance, he somehow inexplicably regained full mental clarity. A couple more drinks washed it all away, sure, but it was an interesting process to watch. Pidge had never seen it happen backwards, but she supposed now that he had slept off some of the alcohol, he was back in functioning human mode, though she couldn’t be how sure it would last.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded. She was already at the docks, and had been surveying the ships. She had been deciding between a decent few, ready to finally get out of there, and here Lance was, come to ruin everything.

Lance shrugged. “Hunk said you left. Why are you out here? And why does my head hurt so much.”

“Sorry,” a familiar nervous voice apologized, and Hunk stepped out from the shadow of one of the larger ships. Oh, great. He was here too.

Pidge ran a hand through her hair, trying to think of a new plan. She didn’t know what she was going to do. The boys wouldn’t let her leave, she was vital to the crew. Pidge Gunderson, pirate, mapmaker, unofficial captain, was stuck with them. Again.

“You weren’t trying to leave us, were you?” Lance asked, suspicion creeping into his voice.

“What--I--no--I was--that’s a ridiculous claim!” Great. That wasn’t suspicious at all.

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Good, that means you can help us pick a new ship. Hunk told me the old one burned down.”

“Uggghhhhhhhhh.” Pidge wondered if she could get away with stabbing them both and running while they were distracted by the pain. She probably could. “Listen, guys, I love you, okay? You’re great and wonderful and sometimes you can be useful but I just need to leave, okay? So how ‘bout you go back to the inn and I run away and we never see each other again.”

Lance looked genuinely hurt. “Pidge, I thought we were a crew.”

Pidge hadn’t meant for it to end this way, but it was late, and she was tired, and all of her frustration and anger was pouring out at once. “We’re not a crew! You don’t know anything about me!”

“Well, you’re not exactly the most open guy in the world,” Hunk pointed out.

“I’m not a guy period! Did you know that, Hunk? Did you? I don’t think you did!”

As soon as Pidge said that, she realized she’d made a mistake. She’d spent one year undercover, one year running. She’d only survived because the king was after Katherine Holt, not Pidge Gunderson. She was just another man on the open seas: plentiful and unmemorable. There were few female pirates, and Pidge had no desire to stand out. Now, in a moment of weakness, she’d just given away her entire identity. She was as good as dead.

Lance and Hunk were staring at her, stunned.

“You’re not?” Lance asked.

Pidge shook her head. There was no point hiding it now. “I’m gonna go,” she said, turning to walk away. “You guys have fun or whatever.”  
    “Wait, Pidge! You can’t just leave! You’re still part of the crew!”

But she was already gone. This was a hitch in her plan, but it changed nothing. So maybe she wouldn’t capture her own ship just yet. Maybe she would lay low and be more careful and stay far away from home for a little while.

But then she saw the ship, the beautiful, gorgeous ship. Sleek wood, silver sails. It was flying the Altean flag, but that was okay, Pidge wouldn’t keep it up for long. _The Castle._ Such a useless name for a ship, though she guessed that was the point. Pidge wasn’t an impulsive person, most of the time. It had been an impulse to steal from the crown, an impulse to become a pirate, an impulse to join Shiro’s crew. None of those decisions had ended well for her, and she doubted this one was. But seeing the _Castle_ , in all its glory, Pidge knew. She had to have that ship.

Maybe Pidge would keep off the seas. Maybe she would lay low. Or maybe she wouldn’t.


	2. Allura and Coran Will Fight You™

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone tries to steal the same ship and Allura scares them all.

Keith had been watching the ship for weeks. 

His ship, wrecked. His crew, gone. His hopes and dreams, dashed. And yet, he’d seen that ship, in all its beautiful shining glory, with its two person crew. It was a waste of space. He had to take it over. He didn’t know what he would do with it. He didn’t have anyone to sail it with him, but he could find people. He could be a pirate again. 

The ship was called the  _ Castle.  _ It was sleek and when the sails moved they almost glittered and Keith had to have it. The only problem was that it flew the Altean flag, and Altea was one of the few countries Keith hadn’t managed to piss off yet. But taking out two of their privateers wasn’t that bad compared to some of the other things he’d gone, and the country was so big he doubted anyone would notice.

When the ship finally docked, it was in a tiny port town off the coast of Altea. Keith waited for the two crew members to leave (Keith still couldn’t believe there had only been two people aboard, what a waste) before he went aboard. Up close, all of the ship’s beauty was a bit muted. The deck was scuffed with scratch marks, the sails were grimy, the mast was littered with marks made by knives and bullets. It was just another pirate ship, nothing special, but Keith clung to the feeling he’d had when he saw it, the feeling that it was something more.

Keith could have sailed away right then. It would have been difficult, with only one person, but he could have managed. He wasn’t planning on finding a crew immediately, anyways. He would test the waters, sail around on his own, a proper pirate with a proper ship. And then maybe he would get himself some help. It was an unrealistic dream, that he knew, but if he kept the Altean flag up, he was hoping he wouldn’t be bothered. No one was stupid enough to attack an Altean privateer, except, it seemed, Keith himself. 

But instead of sailing away, Keith walked around, explored the deck. The crew had just left, after all, they weren’t coming back any time soon. 

It really was a beautiful ship, one of the nicer ones Keith had stolen. There were eight rooms below deck, though only two of them were occupied. One of them was like the others, small and sparsely decorated, but the other one was clearly the captain’s quarters. It was twice the size of the rest of the rooms, filled with mahogany tables and plush chairs, the kind of things only royalty would want aboard a ship. A whole shelf of books, another of wine. Keith decided that he never wanted to leave. 

This ship would be his. It had to be.

“Hey.” 

Keith drew his sword out of its sheath at the same time as he spun around, one fluid movement, the product of years at sea. He was face to face with a young woman, dressed mostly in green, holding a dagger in front of her with eyes narrowed and a face that said she wouldn’t hesitate to kill.

There was another person on board. Of course there was another person on board! Why would they leave their ship completely unattended? Keith swore he hadn’t seen anyone else in the week he’d been trailing the ship, but he’d clearly been wrong. How could he have been so  _ stupid _ ? 

“Don’t move,” the girl said, because that’s what she was, really, less of a woman than a girl. “I’m taking this ship.”   
_ Wait _ . “I-I’m taking this ship,” Keith stammered. 

The vicious look in the girl’s eyes faltered. “What? You’re not the captain?”

“No.” 

“Well this ship is  _ mine _ ,” the girl announced boldly, taking another step forward, “so back off.”   
Oh no. Keith was not about to let this glorified child take the ship that he had been after for weeks. What right did she have to it? The ship was his!

Keith tightened his grip on his sword. “Bring it on.”   
The girl was good with a blade, Keith had to admit. They danced around each other with the kind of fluidity Keith had learned was hard to find on the sea. Even though her knife was half the length of Keith’s sword, she was fast, and she knew how to fight. He was pretty evenly matched. 

“Wait,” the girl said, falling back after taking a shot at Keith that he had narrowly avoided. “We’re both alone, aren’t we? Why don’t we just work together?”

Keith shook his head. “I’ve been after this ship for weeks. I’m not letting you have half the glory of taking it over.”   
The girl gripped her knife tighter, but she didn’t attack. “Why not? I’m good, don’t pretend I’m not. Don’t you want me on your crew?”   
Keith had to admit, having her under his command wouldn’t be such a bad thing. But he wasn’t sure he could trust her not to stab him in the back, and besides, having another person with a mind and opinions of her own would slow him down. He needed this ship for himself so that he could find Shiro on his own, without any interruptions. 

“I can’t work with you,” he repeated and then, because he’d realized that sometimes the truth wasn’t such a bad thing to be shared, if he only gave parts of it away, “I’m looking for my captain. I need to do it on my own.”   
The girl rolled her eyes. “You’re such a  _ child _ .” 

Keith held his ground. He wasn’t about to be taunted into giving up the ship.

“Look,” the girl said, “I’m looking for my captain too. If I help you find yours, you help me find mine. Will that make you happy?”   
Another person helping Keith look for Shiro could be useful. Still, the girl would probably kill him in his sleep. 

Before Keith could decide whether or not accepting her offer would be a good idea, there was a loud thump from the deck, followed by the click-clack of footsteps, followed by the door to the captain’s quarters being thrown open. 

“We’re taking this ship!” the man standing in the doorway shouted. There were two of them: the one who had spoken was tall and skinny, dressed similarly to the girl, Keith noticed, but in blue. The one behind him was twice his size, standing a few feet behind and looking considerably less excited about the whole thing, and dressed in yellow. Both of them had guns. Both of them were staring at the girl, who was staring back, eyes widened in recognition.

“Pidge?” the one in the back asked tentatively.

“Keith?” the first one looked equally surprised.

Keith didn’t recognize any of them. He’d clearly made more enemies than he had previously thought. 

Pidge looked absolutely horrified. “What are you doing here?” she shouted at the two men, seemingly having forgotten about Keith. 

“We need a ship,” the man in yellow said. 

Pidge looked like she was ready to murder someone, and Keith was suddenly aware of the fact that, if it came down to that, he was nearest to her. He took a few wary steps away.

“This is a sign,” the man in blue announced. “You’re clearly meant to be part of our crew. Unless you’re going to run off with  _ Keith  _ here. Stop stealing our friends, man.”   
“Uh… I don’t know you,” Keith pointed out.

The man in blue staggered back, clutching his heart in what seemed like a little exaggerated of a movement. “We were part of the same crew! With Shiro, remember? We were  _ rivals _ !”

Keith remembered Shiro, obviously he remembered Shiro, he’d been searching for him for almost a year, after all, but he didn’t recognize the man. Shiro’s crew had been faceless, interchangeable, and he guessed he must have made a bigger impression on them than they did on him.

Keith shook his head. “Sorry, doesn’t ring a bell.”

The man in blue shook his head, sighing. “The name’s Lance.”

“Okay well, Lance, as I already told you friend here, this ship is mine, so you’d better get off.” Keith didn’t know why he was still arguing at this point. He was clearly outnumbered, and common sense told him to quit. But he’d never listened much to common sense, which he guessed was obvious, considering the situation he was in now.

“No way in hell,” Lance shook his head. “Its ours.”   
“Why is it  _ yours _ ?” Pidge piped up. “I was here first.”   
“Actually,  _ I  _ was here first,” Keith pointed out.

“Well there’s more of us,” said the guy in yellow.

“I could take all of you on,” Pidge shot back, a bold claim. Keith wondered if it was true.

“Oh, you’re not so great,” Lance scoffed.

“Yeah, well, I’m a betting swordsman than you!”

“Yeah, because I use guns! Swords are an old man’s game, everyone knows that!” 

“Guns, shmuns! Not everyone can carry around a fancy-ass weapon however they want!”

“You’re just jealous ‘cause you never learned how to shoot one!” 

“Oh yeah, well Shiro liked me more!”

“What does that have to do with anything?”   
“I don’t know!” 

“EVERYONE SHUT UP!” Keith shouted. To his surprise, the room fell silent. Everyone stared at him, waiting for him to speak. He didn’t have anything else to say.

“Look at this, Coran,” an unfamiliar voice said from the hall. “This group of children is going to take our ship.”

The four sailors spun to face the speaker, a woman with an abundance of shockingly white hair. She was dressed in blue and white, Altean colors, and her blue eyes pierce Keith’s like knives. He had the sudden urge to cut her head off. Behind her stood a man, also Altean, most of his face taken up by a bushy orange moustache. He looked vaguely like someone’s pleasant uncle, if someone’s pleasant uncle was pointing a gun at you.

The woman didn’t have a weapon, but she looked completely confident in her ability to take them all down. Something about her unsettled Keith. There was a sort of familiarity about her, though he couldn’t quite place what it was that he recognized. 

“Well, we are in need of a crew,” the man, Coran, replied. “Maybe they’re up to the task?”

“I don’t know,” the woman smirked. “Let’s see what they’ve got.”   
One second, Keith was on his feet, sword in hand, and the next, his feet had been swiped off the ground. He was lying on his back, his sword a few feet away. As he scrambled to his feet, reaching for his sword at the same time, someone kicked him in the back of the leg. He turned to see Lance, smiling defiantly at him.

“Hey, what was that for?” he snapped.

Lance stuck his tongue out. “Should have remembered me.”

Keith rolled his eyes. He had bigger problems to deal with.

The woman was currently engaged in a fight with Pidge, though it was less of a fight and more of Pidge swiping at her and her avoiding the attacks. Meanwhile, Coran and the man in yellow were grappling, their guns abandoned in favor of fists. 

Keith sized up his opponents, trying to decide who to take out first. He knew Lance had his sights set on him, but he put the other boy out of his mind for the moment being, seeing as he didn’t think he would kill him, at least not immediately. He decided to go for the woman, who had Pidge backed up against a wall, jabbing frantically at her without much precision. Lance had already rushed for Coran and the man in yellow, throwing himself into the fray.

The next time the woman avoided one of Pidge’s attacks, Keith lunged, aiming for her chest. She jumped away just in time, but he still managed to graze her shoulder, and she gripped her torn shirt as blood spread, cursing.

“Coran!” she shouted. “This one’s coming with us!” 

Pidge threw her dagger, hitting the woman in the knee, and grinned triumphantly. As a response, the woman tore the knife out and threw it back to her, wincing before calling, “This one too!” 

Keith realized, suddenly and shockingly, that this was all a game to her.

Coran pushed the guy in yellow away, and attempted to do the same to Lance, but he was too slow, and ended up narrowly missing getting shot in the head, the bullet grazing the side of his head, taking out a lock of his hair.

“These two are good to go as well,” he announced.

“Great,” the woman nodded, collapsing into one of the chairs. “Take them above deck while I clean myself up.”   
Keith wasn’t exactly inclined to agree with anything she said, and he didn’t think any of the others were either, but a large part of him feared the woman, so he followed Coran above deck.

Coran told them to line up against the side of the ship, and they obeyed four pirates reduced to nothing by the sheer power of a fearsome woman.

“So,” he said, walking up and down the deck, arms crossed. “You four have chosen to attempt to steal this lovely ship. A rather unfortunate decision on your part although, luckily for you, the gods have been merciful, and so, instead of killing you, you are going to work for my captain and I.”   
“What if we don’t  _ want  _ to work for you?” Lance complained. Keith thought he saw Pidge roll her eyes, though he didn’t understand why.

“Well, we could still kill you.” Coran’s smile was wickedly sharp. “Slit your throat, throw you overboard, leave you afloat for Zarkon to find, you get the idea.”   
Lance gulped. “On second thought, I’ll stay with you.”   
“Smart choice. From this moment onward, you are under the command of Allura, my captain, and I, the lovely Coran.”

Keith tensed, and he noticed that everyone else did the same. Allura was a legend of the seas, though he’d never met her in person, only heard the name. She sailed the Altean flag, but for whatever reason, the crown seemed content to let her do whatever she wanted, and do whatever she wanted she did. She was ruthless, cutthroat, and her crew came and went faster than the sun on a cloudy day. Her name scared Keith, just a little, but it could be good for him if he joined her crew. No one wanted to mess with a god, which was exactly what half the sailors on the open sea thought she was.

“Now,” Coran clapped his hands together, either not noticing the wave of fear that had overtaken the newest additions to the ship or not caring. “Tell me your names.”   
The guy in yellow was the first to gain the courage to speak up. “Hunk Garrett, sir.”   
“Lance McClain,” Lance announced soon after. To Keith’s surprise, and annoyance, he was smiling. How could he be happy about this?   
“Pidge Gunderson,” Pidge announced herself. She was full of fake confidence, leaning against the edge of the ship, cleaning her dagger on the end of her shirt.

“Keith Kogane.” Keith could hardly believe that, after all this time, after trying his best to be unrecognizable, he was giving out his identity to a privateer, and not just any privateer but Allura the sea princess’ first mate. 

“Splendid!” Coran exclaimed. “If any of you have committed crimes against the Altean crown, they will be overlooked for the time you’re part of our crew.”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Can you really… erase all our crimes? Just like that?”   
Coran chuckled. “Altea tends to let us do what we want here on the  _ Castle.  _ Now, everyone to your quarters. It’s first come first serve, so chop chop! We set off tomorrow morning.”   
“Where are we going?” Hunk asked.

“That,” Coran grinned, twisting the end of his moustache between his thumb and forefinger, “is a surprise.”


	3. Lance Really Fucking Loves the Sea, No Plot Required

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get gay. But like not a lot. Don't get your hopes up.

Lance had always loved the sea, everything from the ships to the people to the creatures lurking below the surface. Some people would argue that bloodthirsty pirates and wicked sirens were hardly a good thing. Lance disagreed. There was nothing bad about sailing the ocean, you just had to have the right outlook on it, which Lance did. Most of his crew, on the other hand, did not.

“Why are you a pirate if you just get seasick all the time?” Pidge asked Hunk for the millionth time. She was leaning against the rail, fingers outstretched as if she was trying to catch the early morning sunbeams in her hand. She seemed to be making a point not to look at her crewmate, who was leaning over the rail a few feet away, emptying the contents of that morning’s breakfast in the sparkling ocean.

“I’m in it for the adventure,” Hunk informed her, straightening up and stalking off below deck.

“That’s a horrible reason to do anything!” Pidge called after him.

“Why are  _ you  _ a pirate?” Lance asked her. He was sitting in the crow’s nest, polishing his gun until the steel gleamed. He loved it up there, first hand contact with the wind and sky and sun. 

Pidge turned around to squint up at him, holding one hand over her eyes to protect them from the sun. “Because it’s the only thing I  _ can  _ do.”

“Cryptic as always,” Allura commented. She had appeared some time while Lance was waiting for an answer, and was peering up at him critically with her arms crossed. Lance had spent the first few days of his time on this ship flirting with her, but he had quickly dropped it when he realized that she could put a bullet in his head without so much as glancing in his direction. No one else seemed that scared of her, but she terrified lance.

“What about you, captain?” Pidge asked. “Why are you a pirate?”

“Privateer,” Allura corrected her, pushed a lock of stark white hair out of her eyes. “And I suppose that my motives are a lot like yours, Pidge, I simply feel that there is no other option.”

“Well  _ I _ ,” Lance announced, spreading his arms wide to emphasize his point, “am I pirate because I love the ocean. All the dolphins and mermaids and sunshine and--” 

“We get the point, Lance,” Pidge cut him off.

“Well that’s rude,” Lance grumbled.

Allura chuckled. “I came up to tell you we’re going to reach land soon. I already talked to the guys downstairs, and one of you has to stay onboard. Decide between yourselves, I don’t care.” She disappeared back downstairs without another word.

“I’m leaving,” Pidge announced before Lance could say anything. “I call it.”   
Lance wanted to protest, but he couldn’t think of a compelling argument. After all, she  _ had  _ called it.

“Fine,” he grumbled. 

“Don’t sound so down,” Pidge smirked. “I thought you loved the ocean.”

“Shut up,” Lance complained.

Pidge just shrugged.

 

They docked an hour later in a small port off the coast of Altea, and Lance watched as his friends and crew got off the ship, Allura and Coran followed by Hunk who waved goodbye and Pidge who smirked in Lance’s direction. Without them, the ship was eerily still, the noise in Lance’s ears coming from the docks around him, not the people he sailed with. He knew Keith was somewhere below deck, but he made horrible company, so Lance waited until the rest of the crew was out of sight before climbing up into the crow’s nest.

He had never been up there before. Pidge had claimed it as hers on the first night, and she spent most of her time above the rest of them, only coming down when it rained. Lance had no idea what was up there, since she was completely territorial, and whatever lied waiting for him would probably be the most interesting part of his day.

It was a lot harder to get to the crow’s nest than Lance had imagined. There was no ladder, only a complicated series of ropes and iron rungs barely large enough for him to fit one foot on, and four times he nearly fell. He was almost to the top when his ankle got caught in one of the ropes and, before he could stop himself, he slipped. Lance, holding onto the mast with one hand, leg still caught in the tangle of ropes, was losing his grip fast. He dared to glance down and saw, to his horror, that the deck was much farther away than he’d realized while climbing. How was Pidge not constantly terrified?

Lance, with two fingers left gripping his feeble handhold, prayed to whichever gods would listen, fully aware that a fall from that height would kill him if he wasn’t careful about how he landed, and maybe even if he was. And then he let go.

Lance was falling, falling, and then the rope around his ankle tightened and he felt something pulling him upward. He craned his neck up to see the rope tangled around his leg, the only thing coming between him and his imminent demise. This was almost worse than falling.

“Help!” he called, cursing himself for the way his voice cracked. He knew it was useless, but he wished one of his crew members was still around, close enough to hear and come running. He would even welcome Pidge, despite knowing that she would be furious to know he tried to invade her privacy. He was too desperate to care. 

He tried again, but no such luck. People on the docks were stare to stare at the idiot hanging from the ropes of his own ship, and he couldn't blame them. 

“HELP! Keith!” Why did Lance think Keith would come to save him? He didn't care about Lance. He didn't care about anything.

“KEEEITH!” Lance was going to die. He was going to die, and his crew would find him dangling from the crow’s nest like an idiot. The logical part of him knew that he wouldn't actually die, not as long as he didn't fall, but he wasn't feeling very logical all the moment. “ _ KEEEEEITH!” _

“Oh my god,  _ what _ ?” Lance’s crewmate was standing a few feet away, holding one of Allura’s many cats. He crossed the deck to stand directly under Lance and peered up at him, a grin splitting across his face. “How did  _ that _ happen?” he asked, holding back a laugh. Lance had never heard him laugh before. Or seen him smile. Or do anything that didn't involve complaining, for that matter.

“It was an accident,” Lance informed him, feeling extremely stupid. “Now help me get down!” 

“Hmmm,” Keith scratched his head in mock consideration. “Maybe I should just leave you there for Pidge to find.” 

“Keith!”

“Okay, okay, fine.” Keith set the cat down on the ground and walked over to the mast. He kicked it, and the rope holding Lance swung violently. He braced himself as it shook, fear building up in his chest. Was this was it was like to die? Lance suddenly felt very bad for all the people he’d shot. 

“Keith!” Lance screamed. He had managed to tuck himself into a ball, head pressed up against his chest. His breathing had quickened. He didn’t want to die, not here, not now, and certainly not like this.

Lance expected Keith to laugh again, but when the shaking stopped and he braved a glance down at the deck, the other boy’s face was grim, and, if Lance wasn’t mistaken, a bit guilty. 

“Sorry,” Keith called up at him. 

“It’s fine,” Lance muttered, but he didn’t think Keith heard, which might be better -- it wasn’t fine, not really.

Keith surveyed the mast, observing the mess of looped ropes and bent nails that served for a ladder. He stepped back and pulled his thick black hair into a tight ponytail before grabbing hold of one of the ropes and beginning to climb.

Lance watched as Keith scaled the pole with a considerable amount more athleticism than Lance had thought he was capable of. 

“You're my knight in shining armor,” Lance joked when Keith was halfway to him, face contorted in grim determination. It was an attempt to lighten the mood, but Keith only frowned. “I'm a pirate.”

Lance sighed. “Nevermind.” 

Keith shrugged and kept climbing. 

Lance was starting to black out from all the blood rushing to his head when he found Keith directly in front of him, his eyes boring into Lance’s skull. 

“Don't look down,” he said unhelpfully. Lance, naturally, had a sudden urge to look down. He tried his best to fight it. 

“Hurry up and get me down from here,” Lance complained. He'd been holding out well enough so far, but he wasn't sure how much longer he could last. 

In response, Keith kept climbing. 

Lance was mentally saying his farewells to his family when something jerked him upwards, and a second later, he was lying in the crow’s nest, Keith underneath him, breathing heavily. The other boy pushed him to the side and sat up, wiping sweat off his forehead. He looked a mess, hair coming out of his ponytail, face red. For the first time Lance could remember, Keith looked completely off guard.

“I hate you,” he grumbled, but there was no venom in it.     

“Sorry for nearly dying,” Lance contributed. It seemed like the right thing to say.

Now that he wasn't in danger, lying in the crow’s nest with his legs hanging over the edge of the rickety wooden bucket, Lance got a chance to look up at the sky, and he understood all at once why Pidge spent so much time up there. It was beautiful, a painting of blue and white, and although it was suffocatingly hot on the deck without wind in their sails, here a gentle breeze drifted by lazily, ruffling Lance’s hair. 

“Why are you a pirate?” Lance asked, remembering his conversation from earlier that morning. Keith hardly ever answered his questions, and he hardly expected him to now, but right then he looked more real, more alive than he ever had, and Lance thought that if he was going to get him to talk, now was as good a time as any.

They sat in silence for a long time before Keith answered. “I dunno.” Lance expected that to be all, Keith wasn’t a very talkative person, and Lance was shocked that he’d answered at all. But to his surprise, Keith kept talking.

“I guess I just thought… life on land is so boring, you know? But out here it’s almost like there’s something more. And I don’t know what it is, but I guess, as long as I’m moving, I  _ can  _ find it. It’s a possibility. I don’t know. That sounds stupid, doesn’t it?”

It didn’t sound stupid, not at all. Lance understood exactly what Keith was saying. There was more to his reasons for choosing to be a pirate besides the sun and the sea. He’d never heard it put in words before, but he got it. He was like Keith, looking for his something more.

“What about you?” Keith asked. He shook out his hair, which had now come completely loose again, and attempted to pull it back again as he looked down at Lance expectantly, waiting for an answer. “And don’t tell me it’s because of the dolphins or something, because that’s bullshit.”   
“There’s nothing wrong with dolphins,” Lance protested.

Keith gave him a look.

He sighed. “Fine, there’s more. It’s the same as you. Something more and all that. I was really young when I started sailing, and I think I was looking for an adventure and then I just… never stopped looking.”

“Nothing is good enough,” Keith contributed. He had given up on the ponytail, and his choppy hair framed his face. Lance had the sudden urge to reach out and touch it. “No matter what you do, you need to do more.”   
“Yeah,” Lance nodded. “Exactly.” He couldn’t believe he was having a heart to heart with  _ Keith  _ of all people. 

“What’s your next great adventure?” Keith asked. Right then, with his hair in his face, looking up towards the sky, he looked pure, innocent, everything he wasn’t. He’d always been attractive, but in that moment there was something about him, something different, something beautiful. He looked like one of the sailor back home, the ones Lance fell in love with, the ones he wished would take him with them when they left. But just as soon as he saw it, it was gone, replaced by the same old Keith. Handsome, but in a factual way. Cold. Removed. Untouchable. 

He wasn’t any of those things now, but Lance didn’t think it made much of a difference.

Remembering the question, Lance scrambled for an answer. What  _ was  _ his next adventure? 

“I guess,” he said finally, coming up with the answer that seemed to apply to everything else these days, “I’ll just figure it out when it happens.”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking around this long, this is my favorite chapter so far so hopefully you liked it? Idk what to write but I feel obliged to put notes on all of these. Happy Monday?


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